Ann Possis visited Aug. 31 with Tom Maertens, a career foreign service officer who served in the White House as National Security Council director for nonproliferation and homeland security in the Clinton & Bush administrations. At the time of the 9/11 attacks, he was serving as deputy coordinator for counterterrorism at the U.S. State Department. He's speaking at Cook County Higher Education Wed., Sept. 5 at 5 p.m. on "Terrorism 2012: The nature of the threat."